Training the next generation
The Medill Investigative Lab at Northwestern University’s renowned Medill School of Journalism has partnered for three years with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to produce high-impact stories that expose public corruption and injustices while training the next generation at the highest level of our profession.
Located in Washington, D.C., the Lab’s students have joined with the Post-Gazette’s veteran reporters on a range of local and regional stories that have prompted government inquiries and public policy changes and provided a voice for the area’s most disadvantaged citizens.
Under the direction of Debbie Cenziper, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and a tenured professor at Medill, the Lab is now looking for ways to strengthen the watchdog program even more and extend its reach deeper into Western Pennsylvania and the surrounding region.
With additional funding, Debbie will be able to oversee a more permanent partnership between Medill and the Post-Gazette to focus specifically on critical problems in Pittsburgh and the region, producing impactful accountability stories and enterprise projects.
Watchdog reporting that makes a difference
With Every Breath
A joint investigation two years ago between the Lab, the Post-Gazette and ProPublica about the nation’s largest medical device recall – toxic breathing machines made by Pittsburgh’s Philips Respironics – prompted a shutdown of the company’s U.S. manufacturing and a federal inquiry into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s handling of the crisis.
The company also agreed to pay $1 billion to patients who had used the dangerous machines, which were linked to more than 560 deaths and thousands of illnesses.
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2023 Winner, George Polk Award for Medical Reporting
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2024 Finalist, Goldsmith Prize